Despite the fluctuations in domestic prices of white rice, export prices of premium white rice
changed insignificantly in response to the weakening of the Thai Baht to around 38.1
baht/U.S.$, compared to around 37.8 Baht/U.S.$ in the previous week. The fluctuations of
white rice prices reflected speculative demand of local traders who are reportedly holding
huge stocks of second-crop paddy. In addition, the Government is holding intervention
stocks of paddy of around 6.3 million tons, including fragrant paddy of around 2.3 million
tons, and white paddy rice of around 4 million tons, of which 3 million tons are main-crop
paddy (MY 2005/06) and the balance is current second-crop paddy. The Government is
planning to release rice from the intervention stocks through barter trade deals with the
Chinese Government and the French Government worth around 17 billion baht (roughly
U.S.$ 423 million). However, these deals have not been finalized. The negotiation will start
when the Government approves these proposed deals. Exporters expect that the approval
will take months during current political uncertainty and the Government will be unable to
conclude deals unless private companies get involved in the transactions.
As for fragrant rice, export prices continued to increase due to seasonal limited supplies of
new-crop fragrant rice. Meanwhile, the recent Government’s release of fragrant rice stocks
of 136,431 tons out of the total tender of 440,000 tons at the prices of around 15,000 –
17,000 baht/ton (roughly U.S.$ 395 – 447/MT) is mainly for domestic sales because there is
no export markets for old crop fragrant rice (MY 2004/05).